From Fanon to Glissant: A Martinican Genealogy

The Martinican philosopher, psychiatrist, and social revolutionary Frantz Fanon is considered one of the pioneering figures of postcolonial studies. As an icon of postcolonialism, an increasingly institutionalized field, Fanon has thus come to be associated with what is primarily an anglophone critical enterprise and area of study. The resulting “anglicization” of this important francophone figure overlooks, I argue, the ways in which Fanon’s Martinican and francophone background is integral to his intellectual and political contributions and to his influence on later generations of writers and political figures. Most notably, I will show the ways in which his legacy can be traced in the work of the contemporary Caribbean philosopher and poet Edouard Glissant, whose brand of transnationalism in Le discours antillais develops the ramifications of Fanon’s thought in a way that has been obscured by anglophone criticism. This lacuna, I argue, is partly due to the unavailability of an unabridged translation in English of Glissant’s Discours as well as to the failure of Fanonian critics to account for his grounding in a specifically francophone Caribbean setting and culture.